Like, I do like racing games. I even like rally-focused racing games. Hooning I could take or leave, but the rest sound good. I was/is a gigantic fan of DiRT 2. DiRT 3 CE isn't a bad game, but the fact that a 'we'll do everything but hit the accelerator' driving mode exists irritates me more than I'd like. Once I figured out that it existed (and I'd been using it the entire time up to when I stopped playing) was even more irritating. Now, the obvious solution is to git gud, but the game just... didn't hook me anymore.

The Crew basically does everything that this game does better, AND has an open-world aspect where I can just drive around with the "radio" on, AND has a story mode beyond "be the best".

DOOM basically gave me the setup I'd imagined for a DOOM game (lookin' at you, Wolfenstein), and everything I needed to 'rip and tear'. Yes, there was a story with lore and all that, but absolutely none of it mattered to the player, aka The Doomslayer. You pushed vidscreens aside, unnecessarily destroyed machines, anything it took to Kill All Demons.

That said, the story and lore are not negligible and an easy read while you're traversing if you feel like it. The game is exactly as immersive as you want it to be, as far as all that. There are a handful cutscenes, but the camera never leaves first-person, and it's less plot and more "this is what you need to do now". It's kind of like playing OG Half-Life, with another layer of story if you're interested in digging deeper.

Gameplay is fun as hell, and all the weapons feel useful in at least some of the situations, so you don't end up with a gun you never use. Well, unless you choose never to use it. (Lookin' at you, pistol.) Movement is fluid, which is good, because the best tactic is to never stop moving.

So yeah, basically... buy the shit out of this game if you haven't already, and if you have, you should probably play it again.

After blazing through DOOM, I decided to boot Borderlands 2 back up. And now almost literally everything movement-wise is Way Too Slow. I say almost literally because my Maya is, and always will be, a goddamned speed demon.

Looks like I forgot a few updates along the way. FUCK. Multi-game post, hoooo~!

DiRT Showdown
It's fun, but it is decidedly more of a multi-player experience than a single player one. And I'm all about that bass single player. Also no story to speak of, other than "be the best, [INSERT NAME HERE]."

Her Story
You just sit and watch videos about a woman being interviewed by the police in reference to her missing husband. Also use an in-game search engine to watch more videos to piece together what happened (or what you think happened) until you're done. It might be great, I couldn't really get into it though. Maybe I need to git gud keywords or something.

I wanted to give this game it's own post, and I also had to go back and find some stuff I'd written about it in other places, since I beat this game in July.

Prey
If you know me, or at least know my thoughts on video games, you know that System Shock 2 is my favorite video game of all time. No exceptions. It was the right game, at the right time, and it fired the right synapses in my brain and I will hear no bad-talking about it. Relatedly, you will have heard me go off on BioShock for being a palette swap of the game, and didn't enjoy it as much because I'd rather just play SS2 again.

Arkane Studios has a bit of a pedigree here, since they both worked on the original System Shock, and helped to created BioShock 2. It would also not surprise me to find out that a lot of the employees were formerly a part of Looking Glass Studios, Ken Levine's company and the creator of the various 'Shock series.

Which brings me to Prey.

This is basically the modern version of a System Shock game (with some twists) and it is fantastic. I don't think I can really tell you why this game succeeds with me where BioShock didn't, but it does. Maybe it's the enemy types, maybe it's the setting or the weapons, maybe it's the Inventory Tetris(tm)... maybe it's all of it. This felt almost like an homage that stands on it's own, a la the recent Voltron reboot, instead of something more half-assed with a similar name, a la the Bayformers. Or maybe BioShock.

Basically the set up is this: You play as Morgan Yu, the really-smart younger sibling of Alex Yu, who is trying to get you to work on the space station owned by the family's company. The beginning of the game is the entry process to get to the station, complete with intelligence and physical testing. And then the excrement slams into the cooling device and you need to figure out what the hell is actually going on. Also this is in an alternate future where JFK was never assassinated, which comes into play as far as the Space Race and how things panned out afterwards.

Anyway, it's cool as hell the whole way through, getting neat weapons and/or abilities to help you do the things you do, like a nerf gun. Why a nerf gun you ask? The bolts do no damage, but they can do things like say... hit an activation switch across a room you can't otherwise get to. Or grab the attention of an enemy. And since it is a nerf gun, the bolts can bounce off just about everything, which means you can pick them up and re-use them if you want. Or just do sick bank shots for youtube clicks.